Sampa the Great, Freo.Social - 26 October, 2019

Some are born great. Sampa Temba’s self-chosen moniker could not be more appropriate really. The Zambian born global citizen has elevated the Australian hip hop/neo soul scene to new heights with her charisma and lyrically global perspective. We’ve never really had anyone like her before to call our own – we’ve had to pull on the thin back catalogue of (Ms) Lauryn Hill, or the eccentricity of Erykah Badu for this kind of dark, mystical flow. But as Sampa reminds us, she isn’t really ours, and this isn’t really her home and she encourages us to be mindful of whose home this really is. A champion of black power and indigenous arts, it is by no accident that her support tonight is Superego (formerly known as POW!Negro).

With a mixtape and two full albums - Birds and Bee9 and The Return – under her belt, Sampa’s set draws heavily from the latter, featuring Freedom, Mwana, OMG, Final Form, Diamond in the Ruff, Time’s Up, as well as Female, Flowers, Rhymes to the East, Black Girl Magik, Bye River . Her minimal stage is draped with African fabric and her drummer and two backing singers in robes. The incense burns. She brims with excitement about her sold out Freo crowd and acknowledges the 'black queens' in the audience - and there are many. Her global footprint and her success in both her Australian and Zambian homelands make for a diverse crowd and she is open about feeling torn between places.

Her connectedness to the people before her tonight and to family and ancestors is evident. The voices of family and friends feature as samples in her recordings. Black Girl Magik (from Birds and Bee9) was written for her sister and speaks to the identity of black women. Sampa champions her skin colour, her gender and in ‘Mwana’ she celebrates her language (Bemba). Her singing as well as her rhyming is joyful and effortless and whilst backing tracks help fill the instrumentation and production delta in a live environment, there is zero doubt about her delivery - her live vocals and rapid fire rhyming soar.

The only down side of this show, was the absolutely retina-searing spot and strobe lighting. Freo.Social has superb acoustics and great vantage points for watching the live performance, and in the short time it has been operating has been a hit with music fans and artists alike, but the ultra- aggressive lighting, especially for a relatively low stage, was the conversation of many punters on the way out who found it uncomfortable viewing.

You have the feeling that the greatness of Sampa will continue as long as she wants it to, in any place she may choose to call home. With more recordings under her belt and a longer set list she will be a force to reckon with. She is a powerful voice for change and for human connection. She has an adoring fan base, a message of positivity for all of us, and in a few short years has secured a niche in the Australian music scene that is all her own. Arise Queen Sampa.

★★★★ for Sampa but ★★ for the blinding stage lights.

#Sampathegreat #TheReturn #Freosocial